《讯号》| 聚焦：《塞耳彭自然史》美文赏析——第35封信

这是一本满是阳光树影、蓝天白云、鸟儿歌声、小草野花的博物学经典。全世界热爱自然与博物的人都看过，或者听说过它。

本书被誉为“自然文学开山鼻祖”，改变世界的10本书之一，初版至今200余年，发行过上百个版本经久不衰。周作人、伍尔夫、达尔文、梭罗等人推崇备至。

这本书给我们打开了一个全新的视角，让我们随着《讯号》来到位于汉普郡内宁静的塞耳彭村，让大家去感受那个时候的鸟与自然与人类和谐共生的自然美景。

第35封信

《邻居家的雄孔雀》

书名：《塞耳彭自然史》

作者：【英】吉尔伯特·怀特

译者：莫乐哥

英文版

LETTER XXXV.

    SELBORNE, 1771.

Dear Sir,Happening to make a visit to my neighbour's peacocks, I could not help observing that the trains of those magnificent birds appear by no means to be their tails, those long feathers growing not from their uropygium, but all up their backs. A range of short brown stiff feathers, about six inches long, fixed in the uropygium, is the real tail, and serves as the fulcrum to prop the train, which is long and top-heavy, when set on end. When the train is up, nothing appears of the bird before but its head and neck; but this would not be the case were those long feathers fixed only in the rump, as may be seen by the turkey cock when in a strutting attitude.  By a strong muscular vibration these birds can make the shafts of their long feathers clatter like the swords of a sword-dancer; they then trample very quick with their feet, and runbackwards towards the females.

I should tell you that I have got an uncommon calculus aegogropila, taken out of the stomach of a fat ox; it is perfectly round, and about the size of a large Seville orange; such are, I think, usually flat.

中文版

第三十五封信 ／ 邻居家的雄孔雀

塞耳彭，1771年

阁下：

我有次碰巧去参观了邻居的雄孔雀，观察到这些美丽鸟类的羽屏并非它们的尾巴。这些长长的羽毛，不是从它们的尾臀生长出来的，而是背部。雄孔雀的尾臀上有一簇短短的灰色硬羽毛，约6英寸长，那才是它真正的尾巴，作用是支撑羽屏(羽屏展开后又长又重)。雄孔雀开屏时，从前面只能看见它的头和脖子。如果这些长长的羽毛生在臀部就不是现在这个样子了，它看起来就会像昂首阔步的雄火鸡。通过用力抖动肌肉，这些鸟儿长羽毛的羽茎像舞剑者手中的长剑一般，咔嗒作响，随后便迈着有力的步伐，转身去追赶雌孔雀了。

需要告知阁下的是，最近我得到了一块不同寻常的海绵状结石，取自一头肥牛的胃。这块结石形状浑圆，约有一个塞维利亚酸橙大小。我原以为，这类东西通常都是扁平状的。